ONE MONTH TO ART SWAP DEADLINE! So much great art already done and much more stuff progressing well. It's not too late to get in on this Swap, even if you haven't started (but it's time to get it on!)

Hang10 - Hit him with some 'roids and keep him away from the liquor, that jaundice will be gone in a few weeks.
Pikey - I like how you formed a nice drinking edge at the jawline. Very inventive.
Jones - You are TWISTED!!! But a very talented carver nonetheless.
Kele- Looks like a great diorama background, can't wait to see what you do with it.
TikiAno - Love that stew pot mug. Hope that glaze fusing works out for you, let me know if you have any questions
Moondog - Great painting. The nice thing about painting with rum is that you can drink the leftovers.

I'm been busy with other things so I haven't made much progress on my project. But I unwrapped it this morning and it's still in good shape for working, I was worried that it had dried out. Will hit it again later this week.
_________________When you hurry through life, you just get to the end faster.
Pirate Ship Tree House

Progressed a little more on mine. I am adding tapa style designs as "bands" around the top and bottom, but they are pretty intricate and I am having a bit of a hard time doing it. The dremel tool is fairly uncomfortable to use because it is so bulky and unwieldy. I am finding after short periods of time with intricate details that my hands start to ache badly and sort of freeze up. I have never experienced this before... is it normal when using a dremel tool? I almost dropped the tool a few times because of the pain its almost like a headache in my hand.

Well anyways here is what I got done so far... After some research I sketched in pencil the combination of a few designs.

Then I started the carving with the dremel.

Closer detail. Unfortunately my hand was getting a little shaky so the designs are not as geometric as they should be.

It will be a relief to finish the tapa details. I am not sure why they hurt my hand so much to do when the shrunken head was relatively easy and painless. I probably won't go as deep as I originally planned and maybe just do a paint wash so the color gets caught in the grooves to highlight them. I am tossing around the idea of what to actually DO with the bamboo when I finish, I am leaning towards turning it into a desk caddy to hold pencils and pens sort of thing by adding a bottom. Any other ideas?

ZeroTiki - I missed your painting. Nice, it's a cannibal-eat-cannibal world out there.
Tiger - That carving is coming along nicely. You might check to see if a flexible shaft attachment is available for your model of Dremel. The really helps because you just hold the headpiece, not the whole motor.
_________________When you hurry through life, you just get to the end faster.
Pirate Ship Tree House

That's the cheapest price for that one, hands down. They make a plastic one, but that one will last forever. And Foredom is one of the best brands in rotary tools for the dental/jewelry industry. Good stuff.

Too many names to mention right now while on vacation but I just need to say everyone is doing such wonderful art. There is so much creativity in this group that these swaps are such a joy. Now we are off to tiki hunt. Cheers, Wendy
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"Mud Engineering" ~ I like that ATP
The next step is to impale my trophy skull on a bamboo post

Because of the potential leverage involved, it will require some "mud engineering" and some serious reinforcement. I put two more slabs on the bottom to make it almost an inch thick. The problem with stacking flat slabs is the risk of trapping air between the slabs then it goes *BOOM* in the kiln I was pretty careful so hopefully that won't happen. A nice thick tube for the bamboo and a gusset to make it stronger (I hope)